Supporting education in Indonesia … one student at a time

A Newsletter Published by

Persekutuan Kasih Kristus Arizona (PKKA), Inc. (Love of Christ Fellowship Arizona)

PKKA Inc. is a nonprofit organization under Section 501(c)(3). EIN# 90-0432312

ADOPSI EDITION 10 – WINTER/SPRING 2014

SEED PLANTING In our Mission Statement, PKKA was developed to help build future Indonesian leaders. Essentially, we do the seed planting by providing scholarships to these future leaders. We would like to see that the seed we planted will continue to grow and eventually become a strong tree which will provide the nesting place for birds, the shade and fruits for many in the community.

Our students do have to attend Christian schools as a requirement for obtaining PKKA’s scholarship. By being educated in the Catholic and Protestant schools, we believe that our students are well equipped with the wisdom of Christianity and will use the wisdom sensibly in their career life, i.e., to be a Christ-like leader in their community.

NOVEMBER FINANCIAL REPORT As of the end of November 2013, our balance is $ 11,686.15. If we compare it with the balance in October 2013 ($ 6,067.04), we have added $5,619.11 this month. The addition to income comes from donation ($ 3,376.01) and from the Benefit Concert held on November 2, 2013 ($ 2,243.10). We are happy to see these numbers because the income from donation has been steadily increasing for the past three years. We believe that this trend will continue in the future as our donors are becoming more engaged in our program. Since its inception, PKKA has always been striving to the philosophy of “one dollar collected, one dollar given away”. In other words, your donation will be 100% utilized as scholarships. PKKA board members are unpaid and all activities are conducted by unpaid volunteers as well. As part of our fundraising effort, every November we conduct a Benefit Concert. This is an event where the donors can meet with the board members and socialize with others. PKKA uses this occasion to report program accomplishment to the audience and encourage them to get more involved with PKKA.

We have hundreds of seeds already planted today. In the near future we expect to have thousands more seeds. Of these planted seeds, it won’t be surprising that we may witness some of them to excel in their community, become a successful business person, a mayor, a governor, or a member of the congress. That is what we aim for: future Indonesian leaders.

If you are interested in investing your money to this good cause, please write a check to “PKKA, Inc.” and mail the check to PKKA, Inc. 1955 W. Baseline Road, Suite 113-330 Mesa, AZ 85202.

Please mark your calendar: The next PKKA Benefit Concert will be held on Saturday, November 8, 2014. The place of the event will be announced in the next edition of ADOPSI

PKKA REPRESENTATIVES IN INDONESIA

The success of PKKA in implementing its scholarship program depends greatly on the relation between us and the school principals. Our current practice is that the scholarship recipients are selected by both PKKA and the principals, the school principals monitor the progress of the students and provide a report to us. To strengthen the bonding be-tween PKKA and the school principals, this year we launch PKKA representation in Indonesia.

South Sumatera

Fr. Ignas Putrasetiabudi is our representative in South Sumatera Province. He domiciles in Palembang, with the respon-sibility of monitoring our school affiliates in Batuputih and Belitang. He recently visited Belitang and confirmed us that this school is financially not in a good shape. The following picture shows Fr. Ignas with the school principals. The con-dition of the school building depicted in the photographs is a good indication of how our scholarships can help provide a small support to this school.

Central Java

In Central Java Province, we have two representatives who are volunteering their time for us. In August, Mr. Tatang Iskarna did a visit to SMK Leonardo and SMK Kristen 2. Both schools are located in Klaten. Our other representative, Mrs. Sulistiyowati, visited SMP Pangudi Luhur 1, also in Klaten.

During the visit to SMK Kristen 2, they had a chance to meet with our students. The students are from needy family, they have to bike 5-10 kilometers or take the city bus to get to school. They are grateful to receive our scholarships. By receiving the scholarship they can concentrate on their study because they do not need to think about how to cover tuition expenses anymore. The school has the following departments: Office Administration, Marketing, Accounting, and Graphic Technology (printing).

Our students at SMK Leonardo have the same appreciation as their peers at SMK Kristen 2 towards our scholarship. One of our scholarship recipients (Agur Yake Mulia, PKKA ID#205) was recently chosen to represent the school in a na-tional Robotic contest. The school principal confirmed that most of the graduates get a job after graduation. The school has four departments: machinery, electronics, electrical, and automation.

East Java In East Java Province our representatives domicile in Surabaya with the responsibility of monitoring our school affiliates in Mojowarno and Peniwen. During their recent visits, Mr. Budiono Kristanto and Benjamin Lumantarna were able to meet with the students and the school principals of the two schools.

During the visit Professor Lumantarna was able to personally donate $ 555.00 to each of the schools. In Mojowarno, the donation was used by the teachers and administrative staff to buy daily essentials such as soap, sugar, and rice. In Peniwen, the school uses the donation to buy books for the school library.

CERTIFICATE OF APPRECIATION In meeting with the school principals, our Indonesian representatives officially deliver our certificate of appreciation to our school affiliates. This symbolic gesture from PKKA turns out to be a valuable asset for the school because they use the certificate as a verification of association between the school and PKKA, a charity organization from the United States. The schools display the certificate in the school office so that the public can see it. The certificate is used as a marketing tool to recruit students.

From the school principal we got the information that most of the graduates from this school are get-ting jobs after graduation.

The challenge is that the school is currently losing students due to competition with the public and non-Christian schools that provide tuition free education.

PKKA scholarship helps the school to recruit students and to promote the school image as an educa-tional entity with international network.

This episode shows that our program can trigger a domino effect, inspire others to complement our schol-arship program by providing monetary support to the school, teachers, and administrative staff.

THE 6TH ANNUAL BENEFIT CONCERT

The benefit concert this year was conducted on Saturday, November 2, 2013 at the Horizon Presbyterian Church in Ahwatukee Foothills. The concert featured Indonesian performances of music, songs, dance, and angklung played by children of the Horizon Presbyterian Church and PKKA. The following photographs depict the atmosphere of the event. If you missed this joyful event, please plan to attend the next concert which is scheduled on Saturday, November 8, 2014. The venue of the event will be announced in the next edition of ADOPSI.

If you like to adopt a student, please write a check to “PKKA, Inc” and mail the check to: PKKA, Inc 1955 W. Baseline Rd, Suite 113-330 Mesa, AZ 85202 Please include your mailing address, phone and email address Please note that the tuition cost that we paid for each student is only $89 for the entire school year. Any amount of donation is greatly appreciated